Temptation
by The Neverending Meep
Summary: Everyone has their weakness. Even in their last moments, the right mind can exploit them. Faced with inevitability, Light Yagami makes a last minute deal with a Shinigami. Alternate ending to Death Note. SPOILER WARNING.


**Temptation**

His breath short and wheezing, one arm clutching the other shoulder, a young man desperately runs for his life down a seemingly endless road. Fear shines in his eyes, and it's a wonder how he can run at all with the several bullet wounds he's recently sustained; by someone he had considered an ally.

However, even the most trusted of allies can turn against you when you've just been found out as the notorious mass murderer, Kira.

Light Yagami's footsteps clumsily pound the pavement, growing wearier by the minute, while from a distance another being watches. Perched cunningly atop a tall tower, invisible to everyone Ryuk the Shinigami watches Light's struggle with his eyes glowing, redder than the crimson skies surrounding him.

"Well, Light. It looks like you've lost." He snickers, watching his old 'partner' hobble down a back alley, exhausted. "Remember how we first met? I told you that I'd be the one writing your name in my notebook."

Ryuk was never considered a 'friend' by Light under any circumstances. Light just happened across his Death Note one day, and the two were bonded by it ever since; a decision Light can't help but regret right now, limping to nowhere in particular with increasing fatigue.

"That is part of the agreement, between a Shinigami who brings a notebook to the human world, and the first human who picks it up."

"If they put you in prison, who knows when you'd die?" Ryuk asks himself, smiling devilishly, "and I don't wanna lie around waiting, so… it's all over."

Spying Light at the foot of a stairwell, Ryuk utters his ultimatum; "You'll die here."

Collapsing onto the stairs from sheer exhaustion, Light Yagami can scarcely breathe, forget attempt another miraculous escape. Looking around desperately, he spots, of all things…

Slowly scratching the name down in his notebook, Ryuk looks up for a moment to catch one last glimpse of his 'partner' before signing his life away, and his jaw drops from what he sees.

"Is that…?" he gasps, shakily lowering his pen again and closing his notebook. He looks again, and sure enough, feebly clutched in the hand of Light Yagami, is the forbidden fruit that he has tormented this Shinigami with since their meeting; an apple.

"M-make a deal…?" Light slowly wheezes, his breath short and ragged from a combination of blood loss and exhaustion. He can't see Ryuk, but knows that Ryuk can hear him, being an all-knowing demigod after all. He blinks, and the dark, towering figure of Ryuk looms in front of him.

"What's this, Light Yagami?" he leers, drooling at the sight of the apple in his hand, "A parting gift?"

"More… a tr-ade offer!" Light splutters, coughing up some blood as he does so.

"You must be crazy, Light," Ryuk chuckles, another devilish smile stretching across his nightmarish facial features, "What do you suppose we should trade? That apple for an extension of your life? Foolish!"

"No…" Light exhales sharply. Staring coldly at the demon that looms before him, he simply says, "This apple… for that book."

"This book, huh?" Ryuk analyses, staring at the Death Note in his hands. He flips it open, and rereads Light Yagami's half written name among its pages, "Ohh, I get it. You want to take everyone else out with you. That way you don't lose, you _draw_. Heh, how petty."

"Do we have a deal, Shinigami?" Light wheezes, slowly twisting the apple in his hand for dramatic effect, "You won't find… many of these back home, I'm su-re!"

Ryuk ponders this notion for a moment. Apples are the equivalent of alcohol to him, and Light has a point; finding more of them would be difficult. Even if someone else finds his Death Note, there's no guarantee that someone will even find it, much less _use_ it…

"Ohh, very well, Light Yagami," he concedes, handing the young man his Death Note in exchange for the single apple, "You're just lucky that I love apples!"

Leering hungrily at the apple in his hand, he raises it to his face and smells it, relishing its fruity scent. "You're still quite the negotiator, Light." He cackles, "It's just too bad you won't be able to use those negotiating powers for much longer."

"Is that so…?" Light replies enigmatically, an evil, twisted smile slowly creeping across his face.

"…heh. Leave 'em laughing, I guess." Ryuk laughs. He moves to take a bite, only for the apple to fall clean through his hand, "…what the?!"

"Remind me of how you _love_ apples, Ryuk?" Light says, now with an evil glint in his eye to accompany his smile. With his left hand, he clumsily scribbles a name into the Death Note; Nate River.

"You… you bastard!" Ryuk gasps, his arms disintegrating before him, "You tricked me, Light Yagami!"

"Looks like I win… after all." Light says. He tries to laugh, but his lungs don't have enough power to let him, "I… am… Kira."

Ryuk slowly disintegrates into nothingness, having broken the Shinigami rule. He extended Light Yagami's life for love. It didn't matter what he loved. Light saw this loophole, and used it. Temptation has the mighty Shinigami falling to a mere human.

Meanwhile, the search party consisting of Matsuda, Aizawa and a couple of Near's guards has retired from trying to find him.

"How the hell did he get so far?!" Aizawa grunts stumped that a man with at least three bullet wounds was able to evade them.

"It doesn't matter." Near remarks, balancing a collection of stones he had collated while they searched for Light, "With those injuries, he won't last much lon-"

But his sentence goes unfinished. To the complete surprise of everyone in the area, Near stops talking, and instead begins gasping for air!

"N-n-no!" he gasps, tipping over sideways and scattering his pile of stones. Eyes dilating, his heart muscles have contracted to such a degree that they're unable to pump blood through his body. So it stops pumping.

"Near!" Matsuda yells, and everyone surrounds the young boy just in time for him to lose consciousness.

"Light…" he mumbles softly, that one word being the last thing to ever leave his lips. With a slow exhale, his life leaves his body, and the light fades from his eyes…

"Vic-tory is sweet…" Light Yagami splutters, chuckling softly to himself. However, he's lost too much blood, and fate takes its toll on him as well. With a fit of coughing, he spits up yet more blood and, too weak to continue pumping, his own heart gives out on him as well. With one last, shocked gasp, Light Yagami's life is brought to a close. Ironically, by the same heart failure he used to kill so many before him.

The Death Note slips out of his hand and falls down the flight of stairs, tipping over the edge of the railing and falling down, landing on the ground below it with a sharp slapping noise.

"…huh? What was that?" A young girl asks, surprised by the sudden noise. Looking up from her schoolbook, she stands up from the bench she was sitting on and walks a few feet to find… another book?

"What's this…?" she queries, studying the black tome with curiosity and wonder. Flipping through the pages, she mumbles "Interesting." and tucks it under her arm. With a manic smile, the young girl calmly walks off home…

**Author's note:**

**Hey there, everyone. **

**I figured I'd write this mostly because I was disappointed with the last episode of the Death Note anime. There was so much potential for that last episode, yet they ruined it!**

…**at least in my opinion, anyway. This is what I reckon should've happened, or at least something similar. It portrays the genius of Light Yagami, even in his dying moments, the greed of a Shinigami, and the one thing Near forgot to take into account.**

**Anyway, feedback would be greatly appreciated. Drop us a review if you've got a moment?**

**Oh, and if you like pokémon… I've a few pokémon based fics on my profile. Feel free to give those a read, too! :3 **


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